The Minnesota Wild are coming off their best regular season in team history with a franchise best 49 wins and 106 points. Although, the club couldn’t carry such success into the playoffs, as they were eliminated in the first round by the St. Louis Blues. Minnesota Wild don’t have much luck in the playoffs, they make it but can’t compete. In the last three year they have been eliminated in the first round by different teams.

Eric Staal boosted his career with a 76-point effort last season. He led the team with 28 goals. Eric Staal may be 33, but he is gaining more and more points each season. Another breakout star Mikael Granlund who had 67 points and a previous season with 69 points. Jason Zuker had an outstanding season as well, he accumulated a 64-point season. That’s a 17-point jump from the previous year he had with Minnesota. The Wild then also extended Jason Zucker, to a new five-year deal, worth $27.5 million.

Zach Parise has been a great asset to Minnesota when he is healthy, the last three seasons he hasn’t played more than 70 games. Last season he played 42 games but was injured with a fractured Sternum. In 2012/13 year he had played 82 games and accumulated 69 points which would be great if he could pull that off this year.

Better seasons from forwards Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter would help tremendously. Coyle missed a month with a broken right leg and had 37 points in 66 games last season, down from 56 points in 2016-17. Niederreiter scored 18 goals last season after averaging 23 the previous three seasons.

Bringing it to the defensive end Minnesota has key defensemen, Ryan Suter and Mathew Dumba, between them they had 101 points in the 2017/18 season. If Dumba and Suter mesh well, this is great news for the Minnesota Wild. Matt Dumba agreed to a five-year, $30 million deal to keep the 23-year-old defenceman in Minnesota after a breakout year. For Ryan Suter, he is just about halfway through his 13-year contract consisting of $98 million.

Now to goaltending, Goaltender Devan Dubnyk appeared in 60 games compiling a record of 35-16-7 with a 2.52 goals-against-average and a 0.918 save percentage. Alex Stalock was also decent in relief posting a 50/50 record of 10-10-4 in 28 appearances. Dubnyk is a goalie to watch, it seems like if Dubnyk plays well, so do the rest of the Wild. It’s expected that he will play the majority of the games again this season. The result of his starts will evidently paint the picture for the Wild.

Coaching might need a change however. In nine career playoff appearances as head coach, Boudreau has only once guided a team into the third round. On the other hand, the general manager of the Minnesota Wild has changed, Paul Fenton was hired. After 20 seasons in the front office with the division rival Nashville Predators.

The Central division is going to be a tough division to break the top three in. With up-and-coming teams like the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche fighting for the spots alongside division experienced Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets, it will be a tight race.

After an eventful and at times confusing offseason, the Carolina Hurricanes got off to a scorching start to the 2018-19 season. In their first five games, the Canes went 4-0-1 while outscoring the opposition 22-15 in all situations and 16-9 at 5v5. They were also controlling 62.4% of the unblocked shot attempts at 5v5 during…